Russia's army reform in its present-day condition looks like a road to nowhere. It is not clear to which doctrine it is being adapted (offensive or defensive) and what it will look like.

Good Luck....Flag in hand, wind up yer a$s, (don't get lost).

The second threat is the increasing degradation of defensive capacity of the army and of the navy; soldiers and officers degrade because of their sad living conditions (and this is at the time when we often hear the living standard of the military is improving more and more).

MOSCOW, March 27, 2003. /From a RIA Novosti correspondent/ -- The coalition forces have lost over 700 people in the course of their operation in Iraq, said Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Abbas Khalaf, referring to new information from Baghdad. Over the past 24 hours, 500 American and British soldiers were killed in the battles for Najaf and Karbala (two holy cities for Iraq's Shiites).

According to Khalaf, since American and British armies have great difficulties in fulfilment of their tasks, they are expecting reinforcement of approximately 30,000 people.

The Ambassador also claims that three American unmanned combat air vehicles /UCAV/ were shot down in the sky above Najaf.

yeah good nickname for american soldiers we have one for soviet union soldiers "non- existant" by the way the germans had a name for marines during world war 2 "tuffelhunden" or dogs from hell because we faught so hard. the japanese had a name for us too it was "sir"

read the following article to back my previous statement about the russian army

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - Several Russian officers went on trial Monday at a St. Petersburg military court on charges of mistreating soldiers, a human rights group said.

The court began hearings on a January incident in which 24 soldiers deserted their unit and traveled to the office of the St. Petersburg Soldiers' Mothers Committee to complain of alleged beatings by their officers, committee head Yelena Vilenskaya said. The officers claimed the soldiers had attacked them and then ran away when they were punished.

Vilenskaya said five soldiers and several officers were charged in the incident and that the court would first hear the cases against the officers, one of whom is charged with abuse of authority. The soldiers are charged with violence against a chief officer, she said.

The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that six officers, including the unit's chief of staff, were on trial.

Monday's hearing - which was to deal with the officers' case - was immediately rescheduled for April 2 because one of the lawyers was absent, Vilenskaya said. The court was due to hold its first hearing on the charges against the soldiers on Tuesday, but Vilenskaya said it was also likely to be postponed because one soldier had decided to change lawyers.

Desertions are common in the Russian army, where morale is low and many soldiers complain of brutal hazing and abuse by officers.